PODCAST · fiction
The Unuseful Hour
by David Draffin
Escape this dreary world for another. Join us for dark and delirious episodes of literary fancy. DW Draffin is a storyteller, a classically-trained actor, novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. He also tells stories at parties.
Episodes
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The Unuseful Hour - ZERO, the end of money - Episode 3
Here we are, already at the end of the story. I have a number of these 3-4 hour novellas that are adapted from feature screenplays. I call these audio versions Spoken Screenplays and I hope that the three episodes of Zero feel like a cinematic experience. The seventh story to be featured on the...
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The Unuseful Hour - ZERO, the end of money - Episode 2
The 21st century isn't getting more stable. We are not going back to a nostalgic normal. Change is the new normal, whether it's in a way as dramatic as this or more of the slow boil variety. I guess I really have to re-classify this podcast out of comedic fiction for the time being. Apologies for...
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The Unuseful Hour - ZERO, the end of money - Episode 1
This story has been many years in the making. I originally conceived it over 20 years ago and pitched it to an executive at Paramount as a feature film. He was so enraged by the concept of a world without money that he ended the meeting. My producer told me to never mention this idea ever again…
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The Unuseful Hour - The Seething
I had a nightmare one night about a vampire who still lived a boring day-to-day modern life. It became THE SEETHING. The sixth story to be featured on the podcast THE UNUSEFUL HOUR, The Seething features the writing and acting of DW Draffin, who has been doing both for a very long time.
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The Unuseful Hour - Woe Is Me, Episode 10
Here it is, the final long chapters of Woe Is Me. I hope you have found the journey thrilling and edifying and fun. If so, keep an eye out for the next book in the series! Until then, here's a whole bunch of my other stories! The fifth story to be featured on the podcast THE UNUSEFUL HOUR, Woe Is...
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The Unuseful Hour - Woe Is Me, Episode 9
We all like collapse stories right now. And perhaps we should. There's widespread anxiety about the future and all our institutions appear ready to crumble. But stories like these aren't predictive. They're cautionary tales that remind us how terrible things can be if we make bad decisions. In…
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The Unuseful Hour - Woe Is Me, Episode 8
A little delay in the episode delivery pipeline. My heartfelt apologies. I blame the animators we hired in Korea. Perfectionists. Not like me. The fifth story to be featured on the podcast THE UNUSEFUL HOUR, Woe Is Me features the writing and acting of DW Draffin, who has been doing both for a…
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The Unuseful Hour - Woe Is Me, Episode 7
Our heroes are in trouble now. But I don't like telling hopeless tales, even if it may seem like it from time to time. The fifth story to be featured on the podcast THE UNUSEFUL HOUR, Woe Is Me features the writing and acting of DW Draffin, who has been doing both for a very long time.
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The Unuseful Hour - Woe Is Me, Episode 6
Dark stories. Dark thoughts. But as Lacie and Mack realize, they can't make it through the day without hope. Even when all possible success has vanished and you are alone, you still cannot give up hope. Happy New Year. The fifth story to be featured on the podcast THE UNUSEFUL HOUR, Woe Is Me...
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The Unuseful Hour - Woe Is Me, Episode 5
The storms are coming now. But in the real world it's a good thing. Or at least in California. We need this rain. The fifth story to be featured on the podcast THE UNUSEFUL HOUR, Woe Is Me features the writing and acting of DW Draffin, who has been doing both for a very long time.
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The Unuseful Hour - Woe Is Me, Episode 4
I consider this story to be action horror, the reading of which is similar to playing a video game. It has been a good introduction to reading for middle school kids who don't like to read, especially with the attached roleplaying game. The fifth story to be featured on the podcast THE UNUSEFUL...
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The Unuseful Hour - Woe Is Me, Episode 3
So this all began one day on a long hike. I was on San Juan Island, WA. taking a walk by myself. And I thought: What would happen if a band of six goblins appeared at the far end of the trail? I had no weapons, no advantage. We saw each other at the same time. How would I deal with six little...
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The Unuseful Hour - Woe Is Me, Episode 2
So just what the hell is this story anyway? Well... that's complicated. And I'm tired. Just know at this point that it grew out of a roleplaying game for hikers called trailgoblins. This morning my wife and I climbed a mountain. I'll post the rules next week when I can move again. The fifth story...
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The Unuseful Hour - Woe Is Me, Episode 1
Maelstroms carpet the land. Trolls and goblins and ogres are real and they're destroying modern civilization. Welcome to The Horror Wars. Every few hundred years monsters invade the world. It takes the heroism of normal people to survive. The fifth story to be featured on the podcast THE UNUSEFUL...
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The Unuseful Hour - The Irminsul
The first of my many Charlemagne stories, here I blend as much historical fact as we know of the ancient Saxons with the unhistorical legends of the king and his famous knights, along with my own speculation of the infamous destruction of the Irminsul. Please forgive me for any errors in judgment...
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The Unuseful Hour - THE DARK BLACK, Chapter 15-16
Thus ends The Dark Black, far in the future. Much has been lost but Inspector Bloom is not alone. Perhaps that's all that we can expect. The third show to be featured on the podcast THE UNUSEFUL HOUR, The Dark Black features the writing and acting of DW Draffin, who has been doing both for a very...
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The Unuseful Hour - THE DARK BLACK, Chapter 13-14
The recovery. Apologies for missing a week. Fell off a cliff in Germany. The third show to be featured on the podcast THE UNUSEFUL HOUR, The Dark Black features the writing and acting of DW Draffin, who has been doing both for a very long time.
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The Unuseful Hour - THE DARK BLACK, Chapter 12
The return. Someday I might even explain what these short cryptic phrases over the last several episode descriptions mean. The third show to be featured on the podcast THE UNUSEFUL HOUR, The Dark Black features the writing and acting of DW Draffin, who has been doing both for a very long time.
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The Unuseful Hour - THE DARK BLACK, Chapters 10 & 11
Some chapters are short enough to combine. Fortunately none have been too long they need to be broken up. The third show to be featured on the podcast THE UNUSEFUL HOUR, The Dark Black features the writing and acting of DW Draffin, who has been doing both for a very long time.
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The Unuseful Hour - THE DARK BLACK, Chapter 9
I've stepped away from my desk here, that's for sure. The third show to be featured on the podcast THE UNUSEFUL HOUR, The Dark Black features the writing and acting of DW Draffin, who has been doing both for a very long time.
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The Unuseful Hour - THE DARK BLACK, Chapter 8
I don't want to. I want a break. The third show to be featured on the podcast THE UNUSEFUL HOUR, The Dark Black features the writing and acting of DW Draffin, who has been doing both for a very long time.
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The Unuseful Hour - THE DARK BLACK, Chapter 7
Baryonic matter is 17% of the matter we now understand exists in the universe. Only that much shines. The third show to be featured on the podcast THE UNUSEFUL HOUR, The Dark Black features the writing and acting of DW Draffin, who has been doing both for a very long time.
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The Unuseful Hour - THE DARK BLACK, Chapter 6
Will they have Labor Day in the future? Apologies for the lateness of the episode. The third show to be featured on the podcast THE UNUSEFUL HOUR, The Dark Black features the writing and acting of DW Draffin, who has been doing both for a very long time.
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The Unuseful Hour - THE DARK BLACK, Chapter 5
In 2024 some of my favorite Dashiell Hammett stories enter the public domain. He is my guide for hard-boiled writing. He and Raymond Chandler are the American fathers of cynical cops. For those of us who can't stay out of the shadows. The third show to be featured on the podcast THE UNUSEFUL…
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The Unuseful Hour - THE DARK BLACK, Chapter 4
I've been writing speculative fiction since the 80s. Most of the near-future predictions we made back then seem to be coming true on schedule. We have climate disaster and political upheaval and gay unions and legal weed. Really the only big one we missed was that we were all convinced that at…
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The Unuseful Hour - THE DARK BLACK, Chapter 3
I was born six weeks before Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. Space travel has been a recurring theme in my entire life. But my early dreams of traversing the galaxy are expressed more modestly here, in a universe where humans have never met aliens nor broken the bounds of lightspeed. But I take...
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The Unuseful Hour - THE DARK BLACK, Chapter 2
Adipocere. Apologies to my legions of fans for the short episode. Sometimes it be like that. The story only wanted ito be that long and as always, I am forever in service to the story. But never fear, Abelard Blum and Saro Ovile have a nice fat episode next week! The third show to be featured on...
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The Unuseful Hour - THE DARK BLACK, Prologue & Chapter 1
A number of years ago, when cyberpunk was on a downswing and Blade Runner 2049 wasn't even being considered, I yearned for a good hard-boiled space noir. So I decided to write one myself. The Dark Black is the story of the first solar-system-wide serial killer and the efforts of Abelard Blum and...
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The Unuseful Hour - THE TWISTING DOOR, Chapters 13-18
Thus ends The Twisting Door. I have all kinds of plans for it. My wife isn't in stage or film but she is a special education teacher. I visualize living in the woods of Northern France for a season with a cast of disabled/differently-abled actors and a green screen city of ancient Le Mans. Wish…
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The Unuseful Hour - THE TWISTING DOOR, Chapters 9-12
Poets like climbing mountains. Byron and Shelley had their visions in the Alps. I do the same in California's Sierra range. Leaving now. I'll let you know about my visions next week. The second show to be featured on the podcast THE UNUSEFUL HOUR, The Twisting Door features the writing and acting...
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The Unuseful Hour - THE TWISTING DOOR, Chapters 5-8
The standard idea is that mythology arose from the same place everything else did, from the scholars and artists at the center of society. But what if the opposite is true? What if these scholars and artists enforced a limiting and judgmental religion instead, exiling anyone different to beyond…
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The Unuseful Hour - THE TWISTING DOOR, Chapters 1-4
Here it is! The second story to be featured on The Unuseful Hour! The Twisting Door comes out of years of research I did on the Frankish Carolingian empire and the history and myth of Charlemagne. I started all that when my producer in Hollywood at the time asked for the next Game of Thrones. It...
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The Unuseful Hour - ALAXSXAQ, Chapter 30
30. The Word When I first started writing Alaxsxaq 13 year ago as a gap-filling writing exercise for fun, I had no idea that some day it would be one of my largest epics. I didn't even know that I'd narrate it. I'd been acting my whole life but I hadn't become an audiobook narrator yet. So much…
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The Unuseful Hour - ALAXSXAQ, Chapter 29
29. Like a Lover Seasons come and go. Air moves. No one really knows why. The first show to be featured on the podcast THE UNUSEFUL HOUR, Alaxsxaq features the writing and acting of DW Draffin, who has been doing both for a very long time.
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The Unuseful Hour - ALAXSXAQ, Chapter 28
28. The Second Mess Yesterday I was able to swim in a lake--able to swim anywhere for the first time in 18 months. The night before, we had gone to a live theatre cabaret. I dare not depend on these newly regained liberties. The 21st century will not be so kind. But we take our moments where we...
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The Unuseful Hour - ALAXSXAQ, Chapter 27
27. Delusions Before Death Standing on the beach. The border of the land and sea. The edge of infinity. Not just a strand of sun and wind. The place where one is beaten into new forms by the conflict between elements. And someone once had the bright idea to invent a piña colada stand. The first...
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The Unuseful Hour - ALAXSXAQ, Chapter 26
26. Three Legs Broken I love travel. I'm considering buying a plane ticket to Bulgaria. I mean, what do we really know of the Thracians? The first show to be featured on the podcast THE UNUSEFUL HOUR, Alaxsxaq features the writing and acting of DW Draffin, who has been doing both for a very long...
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The Unuseful Hour - ALAXSXAQ, Chapter 25
25. Dead on Impact Cycles turn. Life begins anew. I mean, not in this episode. But so I've been told. Apsim may some day learn that lesson himself. But probably not. The first show to be featured on the podcast THE UNUSEFUL HOUR, Alaxsxaq features the writing and acting of DW Draffin, who has…
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The Unuseful Hour - ALAXSXAQ, Chapter 24
24. Soup And A Warm Bed One of those weeks where the clouds break apart and the sun shines through. The world isn't necessarily a better place, but it feels livable once more, with more hope and possibility in it. Apsim doesn't know that feeling at all. The first show to be featured on the…
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The Unuseful Hour - ALAXSXAQ, Chapter 23
23. The Hungry Strike Undigestable food and chronic pain and abusive relationships. Wage slave drudgery. A grand ennui and persistent misanthropy. The unsettling knowledge that we've overstayed our welcome as a species. But why do you ask? What reasons do you have for escapism? The first show to…
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The Unuseful Hour - ALAXSXAQ, Chapter 22
22. The Abnegator If the universe does have a boundary, it should be defined by the leading edge of the big bang, the cataclysmic event that brought the universe into being. By studying -- among other things -- the red shift in the spectra of distant galaxies, which is a measure of how quickly…
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The Unuseful Hour - ALAXSXAQ, Chapter 21
21. The Chiaroscuro Tunnel I gave my cats a bath the other day… they love it. He sat there, he enjoyed it, it was fun for me. The fur would stick to my tongue, but other than that… -Steve Martin The first show to be featured on the podcast THE UNUSEFUL HOUR, Alaxsxaq features the writing and…
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The Unuseful Hour - ALAXSXAQ, Chapter 20
20. Every Spear-Dragging Yokel “It's the lost souls that lay the foundation for a better tomorrow, because those beings are not afraid to be lost, they are not afraid to fail, in the pursuit of something greater, something grander, than to just survive no different than the dogs do on the…
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The Unuseful Hour - ALAXSXAQ, Chapter 19
19. Corncakes and Smallbeer The tendinous part of the mind, so to speak, is more developed in winter; the fleshy, in summer. I should say winter had given the bone and sinew to literature, summer the tissues and the blood. -- John Burroughs The first show to be featured on the podcast THE…
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The Unuseful Hour - ALAXSXAQ, Chapter 18
18. Its Malevolence Burns Within Me Like Poison I build a castle of words but it is not so easy. The wind steals my words away. When I catch them I have forgotten their import. The spell fades. I stutter. All is lost. Aha. Good thing I wrote the words in blood on a scrap of parchment. Here it is…
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The Unuseful Hour - ALAXSXAQ, Chapter 17
17. An Eyetooth Lost "Two South African scientists have gotten Shakespearean scholars excited and confused. They claimed to have studied the Bard's texts and found cryptic references to cannabis, and possibly other drugs, encoded in his writings. Dr Thackeray, head of palaeontology at the…
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The Unuseful Hour - ALAXSXAQ, Chapter 16
16. My Finest Ataspatechistic Dirge Finding good help is so very difficult. Either they have no idea what the job entails, they're incapable o doing it, or they just straight up refuse to get blood on their hands. Or their shoes. This is why I work alone. The first show to be featured on the...
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The Unuseful Hour - ALAXSXAQ, Chapter 15
15. The Totapas Architects of grandeur are often the master builders of disillusionment. --Bryant H McGill. The first show to be featured on the podcast THE UNUSEFUL HOUR, Alaxsxaq features the writing and acting of DW Draffin, who has been doing both for a very long time.
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The Unuseful Hour - ALAXSXAQ, Chapter 14
14. Mialic Thromadurgy And Manbears In Chains I first started writing Alaxsxaq 13 years ago on an impulse. I returned to it during the pandemic to give myself a safe space far far away from the busy broken world. I thought my need to escape would fade. It has not. The first show to be featured on...
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The Unuseful Hour - ALAXSXAQ, Chapter 13
13. Mount Apsim Once I climbed Mount Shasta with some fellows I'd met online. It did not go well. Do not rope in with someone who confuses their Prozac with Valium. The first show to be featured on the podcast THE UNUSEFUL HOUR, Alaxsxaq features the writing and acting of DW Draffin, who has been...
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Unuseful Hour have?
The Unuseful Hour currently has 62 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Unuseful Hour about?
Escape this dreary world for another. Join us for dark and delirious episodes of literary fancy. DW Draffin is a storyteller, a classically-trained actor, novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. He also tells stories at parties.
How often does The Unuseful Hour release new episodes?
The Unuseful Hour has 62 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to The Unuseful Hour?
You can listen to The Unuseful Hour on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Unuseful Hour?
The Unuseful Hour is created and hosted by David Draffin.
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